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China is the focus of most companies regardless of size, industry or geography. They are all eying the tremendous size and growth in the Chinese market at a time when their home markets are faltering for any number of reasons. To succeed in China, they'll need to understand and innovate for the Chinese market. Here's an example of how China can be different and what local companies are doing.

The summer is upon the Chinese and the hot and humid weather is very interesting sights. Many of the dogs have received a grooming and seem somewhat sad about their make-over. Another is all the umbrellas that all the women are sporting to protect them from the sun, many sold with claims of UV protection. Apart from these obvious differences, there are also some hidden ones.

Chinese homes are not well insulated and often suffer from the extreme weather conditions that the country suffers from. Many Chinese families also don't have or only very sparingly use their air conditioning in the summer, making the indoor temperature of many homes to be about 15C in the winter but close to 30C in the summer .

Food very easily go bad and people have to be careful. The bread that you can buy in super markets have different expiration dates for summer and winter, 5 days and 7 days respectively, to accomodate for the difference. Another very local pecularity are the refrigerators.

Given the large difference between summer and winter and the desire to save energy, manufacturers of refrigerators have installed, in addition to the usual dial, an extra plug for setting the season. The idea is that you should be able to save energy during the winter season and have higher effect during summer. Whether there is an actual difference or not, I couldn't really tell. But the feeling of being in control and a belief that you are saving energy probably convinecd many to buy models with this function.

The Chinese are still very much in love with technology and a longer list of features, whether they will actually use it or not, might tilt the balance when in the shops. The confusion is also helpful to sales people in the market when the competition on price is so intensive.

So whenever you are thinking of conquering this new promised land, you have to understand that it is not simply about pushing the your existing products. You really do have to start by understanding the market and designing new products to match their needs. This may also help you avoid issues of cannibalization as the prices is China almost inevitably have to be cheaper than in your current markets, luxury products aside.

Your watchful eyes in the Chinese fridge.
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